25 November 2006

The better late than never edition. Missed prognosticating upon Turkey Day's games, that's OK, those were pretty predictable (I probably would have picked Denver over KC, but Detroit and Dallas were no brainers).

I'll leave it up to John Clayton of ESPN to pick which games I choose to pick. He has his five top remaining games, and they'll be the five I'll stake my reputation on.

Chicago at New England (-3.5) Chicago +3.5Chicago (9-1) travels to Foxboro. New England (7-3) are hard to beat at home, but the Bears are made up of a bunch of hard men. Grossman seems capable of not losing this game, while the Chicago defense are more than capable of disrupting Brady. New England is a very good team, but Chicago is better. Chicago will prove themselves on the road against a quality team, and continue to look like the only dangerous team in the entire NFC (besides possibly Carolina).

New Orleans at Atlanta (-3) Atlanta -3Why, oh why is this on the list? Oh, right, both teams are .500 or better and fighting for the lead in their division. I said last week that I'd not pick for or against Atlanta (5-5) cause their too unpredictable (as are the Saints), but John Clayton made me do it. New Orleans (6-4) has stumbled since their stellar start, though Drew Brees continues to put up amazing numbers. I'm picking this game solely based on home field advantage, it could be close, or it could be a blow out in either direction, neither team has shown they have what it takes to win consistently, that's why they'll both be 6-5 after this contest.

Pittsburgh at Baltimore (-3) Baltimore -3Baltimore (8-2) at home. That should be enough. Pittsburgh (4-6) seem to have turned a corner, but it's too little, too late. The next six games are all playoff games for Pittsburgh, lose any one of them, and they're done. In other words, they're done after Sunday.

San Francisco at St. Louis (-4.5) San Francisco +4.5Red hot San Francisco (5-5) travel to ice cold St. Louis (4-6). The Rams have dropped five games in a row, I think they'll make it six. I can understand why folks don't believe in San Francisco just yet as their five wins have been against weak teams (including St. Louis). But St. Louis are done, they are finished, their season is over, and they'll lose this one just to prove it (and there's no way they should be 4.5 point favorites).

Philadelphia at Indianapolis (-9) Indianapolis -9Indianapolis (9-1) should have a bad taste in their mouth after playing poorly against Dallas and losing for the first time this season. Philadelphia (5-5) have to overcome losing their best player, Donovan McNabb. Picking the Colts to win this game would be easy, except the Colts have been lousy against the spread this season (5-4-1). After a bunch of unimpressive victories, I think the Colts will put together an impressive game on both sides of the ball. Besides, it's not hard to pick against Jeff Garcia.